New Fiber from Chile & A Giveaway

I love Kickstarter. For those who aren’t familiar, Kickstarter it is a crowd funding website where creative minds pitch ideas and look to the online community to provide the upstart funding they need to make their dream happen. As a community member you can peruse all of the projects and if any of them hit home for you then you can “back” the project at a series of pre-determined levels which often come with “rewards” in the form of finished products. I know you are asking, “Pam, why are you telling me this?”. The answer is easy, today my post is about a really awesome project that I backed a few months ago.

While going through one of my Kickstarter addiction periods I was wasting time scouring through the vast database of projects and discovered the Royal Llama Friendship Club. Their Kickstarter page explains their idea in a video much better than I, but here is the short version.There is a population in the Andean mountains of Chile where the economy relies heavily on the ability to raise llamas and alpacas. However, this economy has been struggling and it has been getting harder to make ends meet. The Royal Llama Friendship Club had a vision that if they could make these products available to international clients they would create a whole new stream of revenue. I thought this was worthy of a $25 gamble and signed up to support them hoping that one day they would succeed and I would have two skeins of yarn straight from Chile. It’s been a few months since I put my money where my mouth was and time quickly passed by. I received many updates introducing backers to the process being put in place, the struggles around getting approval for exporting good, notices that the yarn was being produced, that it was being shipped, that it was stuck in customs, and finally that it had cleared customs.

Yesterday I walked in the door from work and sitting on my kitchen counter was a little package that looked like it had been through quite the trip. My face lit up immediately knowing what gem I was going to find inside. Not bothering to hide my growing excitement I ripped open my package and couldn’t have been happier. I had two beautiful skeins of the softest yarn I had ever felt. Yes, I rubbed them against my cheek. I wish I could include a touch and feel section on my blog so you could share the immense pleasure this yarn has brought me already. Each skein contained a tag with a picture of a child from the region in Chile who will hopefully benefit from the possibility of increased trade. I thought this was a very nice, personal touch. I haven’t yet decided what I am going to do with my yarn but now that I know the texture and the weight I will start making plans for something very special.

My only regret is that I backed it at a lower level and only received two skeins! This yarn is not currently available for order outside of the finished Kickstarter project but I will be checking back regularly so that I can order more. When it does open up for international shipping they will have it advertised on the retailers page of Fibras Andinas, the company they paired with to make this project happen. I’ll be sure to share when this is available!

Another surprise I found in my package (which in all honesty I had just forgotten about) was a beautiful pair of hand-made earrings. Each earring looks like a ball of yarn with two knitting needles stuck through them. Unfortunately for me my skin doesn’t appreciate it when I wear earrings. Fortunately for you, this means I need to find a good home for them. Apparently blog giveaways are all the rage now and this seems like a good reason to take part.

Giveaway Rules:

It’s easy to enter this blog giveaway. Leave a comment below and tell us about an item in your stash or a project you have finished that is special to you. This is open to all crafts, not just knitting and crochet. Next Saturday (11/16/2013) I will pick a random winner from those who commented and I will announce the winner below in the comments. If you are the lucky winner I will contact you via email to coordinate shipping. I hope to hear from all of you!

Comments

No takers on these earrings. If you tried to put a comment and it didn’t make it shoot me an email at everydaypam@gmail.com and I will send these off to you. Otherwise they will probably end up in someones Christmas gift this year!

those are certainly interesting earrings. Can’t wait to see them in person – up close and personal. I am flagging on my learning to crochet. I find the directions confusing. It would be nice to have someone to personally teach me. hmmm.